Routine
Still dark but now it is morning, inner-city Kuwait, and the muezzin cranks up the volume to ten.
He's calling Muslims to come to the mosque to perform their dawn supplications. The man can sing, no doubt about it. He bends notes that are pushed from his gut through his throat that even Marvin Gaye or Patsy Cline could envy. It's just that I am not in the mood to appreciate his ability to climb an octave--slipping and sliding between half tones, quarter tones at 4 in the morning.
He manages to round up a few Muslims. Those Muslims would be the building guards--the harises--we call them building superintendents back home. They earn about a hundred dollars a month to mop the stairwells and collect the trash, to show flats for rent and basically watch the comings and goings of all. They are awake early to hose off the sand from the tenants' cars, earning an extra twenty bucks per month. The harisses of the 'hood have harris time to themselves while the night before drips through cracks of dawn.
The muezzin is a haris himself--that is, he lives in the mosque. he probably earns a bit more because of his gift for waking up the entire neigborhood and beyond where the other muezzins in the distance join in like the Ikettes, backing his vocals with harmony.
And with that out of the way, I know my pre-set alarm clock will go off in less than an hour.
There are two ways to combat the full volume routine call if you don't or can't move from your flat: ear plugs or Valium.
He's calling Muslims to come to the mosque to perform their dawn supplications. The man can sing, no doubt about it. He bends notes that are pushed from his gut through his throat that even Marvin Gaye or Patsy Cline could envy. It's just that I am not in the mood to appreciate his ability to climb an octave--slipping and sliding between half tones, quarter tones at 4 in the morning.
He manages to round up a few Muslims. Those Muslims would be the building guards--the harises--we call them building superintendents back home. They earn about a hundred dollars a month to mop the stairwells and collect the trash, to show flats for rent and basically watch the comings and goings of all. They are awake early to hose off the sand from the tenants' cars, earning an extra twenty bucks per month. The harisses of the 'hood have harris time to themselves while the night before drips through cracks of dawn.
The muezzin is a haris himself--that is, he lives in the mosque. he probably earns a bit more because of his gift for waking up the entire neigborhood and beyond where the other muezzins in the distance join in like the Ikettes, backing his vocals with harmony.
And with that out of the way, I know my pre-set alarm clock will go off in less than an hour.
There are two ways to combat the full volume routine call if you don't or can't move from your flat: ear plugs or Valium.
posted by 
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home